Sports players require a range of skills that must be continually refined to become great players. Most, if not all, sports use a form of projectile such as a ball, puck or ring. Some sports restrict the handling of such projectile to hand (e.g. handball) or feet (e.g. soccer), while in other sports, the player must use a stick to manipulate the projectile (e.g. hockey, lacrosse or ringette). Moreover, in some sports, the game is played on an unfamiliar surface, which requires the player to learn an additional skill that is fundamental to the sport.
In sports where a stick is used to manipulate the projectile, in addition to the level of fitness and strength required by all athletes, the player must have good stick control. Most conventional training devices concentrate on these skills. For example, the training device in Murphy (U.S. Pat. No. 5,226,821) concentrates primarily on puck control for hockey players. Similarly, Maki (Canadian Patent No. 1,305,731) is for improving puck handling skills. Other conventional training devices concentrate on developing related skills such as shooting and/or passing (Witzke, U.S. Pat. No. 6,926,624; Hammett, U.S. Pat. No. 5,362,045; and, Cranston, U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,084).
While good stick control, shooting and passing skills are the basis for a good player, a great player possesses many more skills that must be developed and continually refined. Where the sport is played on an unfamiliar surface such as ice, there are many more variables in the equation to becoming a great player. For example, in the sport of hockey and ringette played on ice (both sports may be played on other surfaces), the player requires great skating skills, balance, agility and weight distribution in addition to all the other fundamental skills. Conventional training devices lack such training and thus, there is a need for a training device that develops a broader range of skills and physicality required by such players.